Of The Future And Past
by ZF IAnswerToNoOne
Summary: The UNSC/Covenant war is over. The UNSC, Covenant, and Prometheans have joined to create the Republic of Sentient Species and are now an almost galaxy-wide power. Still, with the discovery of a device in space, and learning of a new enemy, will the RSS be able to react in time?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Halo and Mass Effect do not belong to me. They belong to Bungie and BioWare respectively. I am just a high school kid making stories because I just love fanfics and wanted to make some of my own.**

 **-IAnswerToNoOne**

 **P.S. Feel free to leave PMs and other reviews, I actually will read them, contrary to my name.**

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 **Of The Future And Past**

 **2587** : The Didact has been defeated and the UNSC, Prometheans and the Sangheili Empire have joined under the banner of the Republic of Sentient Species. The Kig-Yar, Lekgolo, Unggoy, Huragok and Jiralhanae have united and have joined the RSS as well. With all these species under the same banner, the Insurrectionists and Loyalist Covenant have been wiped out or they simply joined the RSS. While they all share the same banner, they all still have their own militaries.

 **2595** : The Human fleet is back to pre-Covenant war levels with new technology that the Prometheans provided to the rest of the RSS. With no war, the RSS flourishes and expands throughout the galaxy. The Humans have a decent sized fleet alone but with Sangheili, Jiralhanae and Prometheans, their combined fleet is almost unstoppable. With new Promethean construction tech, the RSS have exploded amongst the stars. They began with about 200, 000 planets, but they are now at 300, 000 colonized planets and still climbing. The RSS's total population has passed 2 trillion and still looks like the number isn't going down anytime soon. Glassed worlds have been terraformed into habitable worlds once again.

 **2700** :Over a century has passed and the RSS has had no major battles. While there have been some minor skirmishes here and there, nothing major has happened. There are now 750, 000 worlds that follow the RSS and 2 new species. The Yarotk, an avian species that has a generally human form. Averaging about 6 feet tall, with 7 fingers, and fairly weak physically, they more than make up with this in intellect. They are almost as good as the Huragok with computers and have an extremely good sense when it comes to medical sciences. They figured out how to extend the lifespan of a being by altering their aging speed. This process extends average life spans by about 873 percent. The other is the Narthoc. This species refuses to be involved in a war and prefer to farm. They expanded to other planets only to convert them and use them similarly to how the Humans used Harvest.

 **2702** :The UNSC Infinity-Class ship, the _Celeste_ , was traveling through slipspace to High Charity, cleansed of all Flood forms and rebuilt. The captain, Lieutenant John Marcus was in his cabin. He trusted the ship's 22nd Generation AI, Phoenix, to handle the ship.

"Captain, the _Celeste_ is leaving slipspace in 15 minutes." Phoenix's voice came from the speakers, startling the captain.

"Alright, Phoenix, I'll be there in 10." the captain replied.

Inwardly, he grouched. _Why did I get stuck with the oldest goddamn ship in the entire navy!_ The _Celeste_ was over 50 years old but still had enough firepower to make some ships pause. _It also doesn't help that it's one of the SMALLEST ships in the entire navy…_ The captain sighed, another day at work.

The ship came out of slipspace and came face-to face with the most powerful ship in the fleet. The _Invincible_ -class _Pride of All_ was a massive 122 kilometer long warship that was positively bristling with guns. The ship had 4 compressed planet reactor cores, and it needed over 5 smart-AI's to properly manage it. With hard-light shields and a CP-3 slip space drive, it had the fastest, and most accurate slipspace drive ever created. Unfortunately, with the massive build cost, there were only 96 operational ships with 4 more on the way. The ship was as much political as it was practical however and as such, had a crew with every species under the RSS except the Narthoc. The rest of the defense fleet included 61 53 kilometer _Adamant_ -class carriers, 13 43 kilometer long CAS-super cruisers, and 134 23 kilometer long _Indomitable_ -class ships. The fleet was massive and nearly nothing would get through. Sadly though, this was over half of the RSS's fleet. In this peacetime, many ships were decommissioned. The _Celeste_ 's IFF frequency was accepted and the ship was scanned. After following proper protocol, the ship was allowed through.

 _No matter how many times I see it, I cannot help but be amazed at how large the_ High Charity _is._ John stared at the station.

Completely rebuilt and larger that before, the 500 by 400 km station was the pride of the RSS. It housed the Senate, and the Senators along with the Admirals and Fleetmasters.

The _Celeste_ had just come back from exploring one of the last regions of space that the RSS did not yet expand to. What she had found was puzzling to say the least. Lieutenant John Marcus had found what would soon be the most important discovery since the RSS had formed.

He did not know what it was and was hoping that the Prometheans would but as it turns out, they were just as puzzled as he was. The device he had found looked like a sword from an old game he had seen and had an unstable core. For safety reasons, he had not ventured close to the device, which he called the Monado. He had instead taken pictures and live feed back to _High Charity._ There the Senators decided what to do.

"We cannot do anything about this 'Monado' until we know more about it. I propose we send a probe to scan the 'Monado' and proceed from there" a Yarotk senator said.

Over 3 quarters of the Senators agreed. And it was also agrees that a squadron of _Adamant-class_ ships would be sent to surround the 'Monado'.

3 days later, the fleet of 11 _Indomitable-class_ ships plus the _Celeste_ left for the 'Monado' device.

 **Turian Fleet 2508 1500 Cycles**

 **Centurion System**

The mass relay lay dormant in space. The Turian Fleet that guarded it was larger than average. Consisting of 5 dreadnoughts, 13 cruisers and 20 frigates, the Turian fleet outweighed most others in Citadel space.

The Admiral of the fleet, Varil Degestrian sat on the bridge, bored. 3 painfully long months had he been stuck on this job, and he hated each and every single day.

 _At least I will never have to do this again._ The Admiral thought. Little did he know how that would come to be.

"Sir! The relay is activating!" his sensors specialist reported. "It appears to have been opened from the other side!"

Varil considered his options. He eventually decided that if there was a species that activated the relays, then it was already part of the Council. And if it wasn't, then it was breaking Council law. That was not to be allowed.

"Helm! Bring us to the relay as fast as you can. Ten the rest of the fleet to follow as well. This may well be the worst mistake that they have ever made. Activation of a relay is forbidden, we will show them no mercy. Fire upon the first ship that comes through."

 **Exploration Fleet 1400 hours**

 **'Monado' device**

The RSS fleet lay in wait near the relay. Sending a probe forwards did nothing.

"Sir, if I may, the scans reveal that the device has an antenna that might pick up radio frequencies. If my suspicions are correct and looking at core of the device, this may be some sort of transmitter or transporter."

"Order the fleet to begin an open frequency broadcast. Lieutenant, if you're wrong and this thing turns around and shoots at us, all I can hope is that she can take the hits from the device. Actually, Phoenix, can you run a few sims on what might happen if we send radio blasts at it?"

"I'm a 22nd generation AI Admiral. I can do it. Simulations suggest that the core will become active and the resulting might be that the lightning around it will reduce the mass of anything near it and the fire it off into space like a MAC round. I suggest that we do it but keep a sizable distance from it."

"Agreed. Send a probe in after the device activates."

The ships began broadcasting and there was something in the broadcast started a reaction from the relay.

The rings that once lay dormant around the core began spinning. An orange glow began in the core and it reached out to anything with mass. The probe that went out was touched by lightning and to all the organics, the probe simply disappeared. To the AI's however, they saw that the probe had been transported across space.

"What the hell just happened?" The Admiral, Jarik Sole, screamed. A seasoned officer, he fought at Reach but was forced to withdraw early after the reactor almost went critical. "What happened to the probe. Was it destroyed?" the Admiral had no end to the questions. When he did finish however, the AI's said that the probe was not destroyed and had been transported to another part of the galaxy. The device was apparently a transportation system if the other one on the other end was any indication.

"This is quite interesting, what does this device do?" Jarik asked.

"Admiral, this device appears to have a 'mass effect'. The core reaches out to anyone near it and then using some element, it appears to lower the mass of an object and then fires it off like a MAC round like the sims suggested. If we could harness this energy, then we could theoretically change the weight of a Mammoth to the weight of a Warthog! The applications to this tech are limitless!" Ali, the AI of the _Lancer,_ the _Indomitable_ -class flagship said. "Quick analysis shows that it has no natural mass! It exists but it doesn't have a mass which would put it at... zero on the Periodic Table of Elements. Wait, sir? we're getting something from the probe. It appears to be a ship of some sort. It's 887 meters long and it...just destroyed the probe. What do you think we should do sir?" this was the sensor officer. Worried about a violent first contact, the sensor officer inwardly worried about another Covenant.

"If this is a First contact, then we should have our shields up but keep our weapons off. Have our AI's learn their language and put our First Contact package through the translator. Let's only go in with 3 ships though, we don't need to scare them with a massive fleet like ours." the Admiral was just as afraid about the new aliens as the sensors officer. "Alright, I want the _Lancer_ , _Spear of_ _Fate_ and _Celeste_ to go through the Monado. Tell the rest of the fleet to stay back unless given the order to join us. Understood?"

"Yes sir!"

"Once more unto the breach" said Admiral Jarik Sole as the 3 ships traveled into the Mass Relay.

 **Turian Fleet 2508 1700 Cycles**

 **Centurion System**

The Turian fleet stood nearby the relay, behind an asteroid that blocked the Mass Relay from sight. When the Relay activated, a frigate was sent to destroy it. The Turians didn't know what it was as it didn't match anything that the ships knew. The frigate destroyed it in one shot and the others ships waited. Soon enough, the fleet that sent the probe followed, but what the Turians saw shocked them to the core.

" _Spirits!_ That...how...what...WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE SPIRITS IS THAT MONSTROSITY?" the crews and captains were all astonished and afraid of the new ships that the came out of the Relay.

"Sensors, how...how big are those ships?" The Admiral was shaking in fear. Turian pride be damned! This is the worst thing that the Council has ever met! Maybe worse than the Rachni!

"Uhh, the _smallest_ one is, is 6 kilometers long sir." The sensors officer was an Asari that had only recently joined the fleet. "The others are 23 kilometers sir."

" _Spirits!_ 6 and 23 kilometers? How do they even move? Who could create such monstrosities?"

"Sir, the ships appear to be communicating with us! The document took a little bit longer to load than it should. Oh, never mind it's up. This is the message, I'm putting it up on screen 2 sir."

On the screen, a being that looked almost exactly like an Asari appeared. It had fur upon it's head and apparently spoke Turian perfectly. Only after the shock of seeing such large ships did the Admiral realize that they were talking to Humans.

"This is the Admiral Jarik Sole of the Republic of Sentient Species. We do not wish to engage in battle but wish to be diplomatic and-" Varil cut the transmission.

"This is a trick. It has to be! The wouldn't show up with 3 massive warships and claim diplomatic purposes! All ships go forth! Engage them and may the Spirits be with us."

 **Exploration Fleet 1500 Hours**

 **"** Sir, First Contact package sent. Here's to hoping that they won't fire at us now."

20 seconds later, Ali appeared on the holoboard.

"Sir, the fleet cut off the package and is moving towards us. Sensors indicate that they are powering up weapons and shields. This is new, their shields don't appear to stop any energy projectiles. They might stop all of our missiles dead though sir. They're firing but their shots seem to be slower than a pre-war MAC round. Our shields are up and they seem to be targeting the _Celeste_. Since this is a First contact, I wouldn't want the aliens to think that we are a trigger-happy race."

The Admiral sighed, "Avoid the shots if you can, keep our shields up and send a live stream diplomatic message I hope that this is all that they will do. I hope we won't be forced to attack them. Ali, have you hacked into their systems yet? Don't bother denying it, I know that you would have already."

Ali sighed, "Well, for your information, the yes I did and what I found could be a small cause for concern. The fleet that is attacking us is mostly crewed by a species known as the Turians, with a few Asari, Drell, and, Humans sir."

To say that Jarik was shocked was a massive understatement. "How are there other Humans? Ali, you must be making a mistake! Could they have hacked into our systems?"

Ali was just as astounded as her Admiral. "Sir, apparently, the Humans here call their planet Earth, have the same countries, the same continents, and the same presidents until about 150 years ago. Anyway, the Turians are a part of a larger collective of aliens. The group calls themselves the Citadel Council and consist of the Asari, Turians, Salarians, Batarians, Humans, Drell, Hanar and a few others." As she named each species, a hologram of them appeared on the table. "They appear to have used this 'Element Zero' for millennia and use what are called 'Mass Relays' or what I'm guessing what we came through as their primary mode of transport. The Citadel is at the middle of the Relay system and is where the Council is located. Their software protections are pretty lousy, I have to say. They do't appear to be using an AI, just a VI. Well, our shields go down to 98 percent every time they hit us but by the time another volley comes, they're already back at 100, shall we go to the Citadel then sir?"

Admiral Jarik Sole said with great finality the three words that would change the galaxy forever.

"Yes, we shall."

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Well, that was the end of Chapter One, I hope you liked it. Something seems to be wrong with my gmail right now and it can't reply to messages so I'll reply to them now. I'm just an average high school kid that still needs to get his work done. You should expect updates happening bi-weekly on the weekends so the update rate is more constant. I hope you enjoy this story and expect more to come. (I really like Mass Effect, Halo, Starcraft, and Star Wars) X-overs and regulars likely to follow!

To Brony757:

This is 2700, the Celeste is actually considered a Destroyer at this point of time and the Pride of All is a Super-Dreadnought. The Adamant's are carriers, the Indomitable's are cruisers, CAS Super-Cruisers are dreadnoughts and another ship class will be a frigate. If you could name the class it would be nice. (I will give you credit for that name) The status quo has been raised, the average ship is about 45km long now. Suprisingly or not, these ships actually aren't going to be that overpowered once I reveal who the RSS and Citadel Council will be facing.

Thanks for the feedback anyhow!

-IAnswerToNoOne

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 **If anyone knows how to make a new chapter in here, could you please PM me? This is my first fanfiction and I can't figure it out.**

-IAnswerToNoOne


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hi everyone, thanks for reading my post. Seriously, not even 24 hours and I'm already at 19 favourites and 25 followers! I am honestly humbled. I didn't expect such a positive reaction. This is my first fanfic though. Don't worry, it will get better over time.**

 **Fidgeter: While I could make this a 'Halo ships will absolutely wreck all others' fanfic, I didn't. Remember how I made the fleet surrounding High Charity over half of the RSS'S ships? And you have to remember, the Citadel Council has THOUSANDS of ships at its disposal. In a straight up fight right now, the ME universe would win. Give Halo 3 weeks, and they'll win, not by much though. In this fanfic, the Halo universe' production is twice as good as the MESS. So as time goes on, the Halo side would definitely win. I'm not going that way in this fanfic though. And don't bother PM-ing me on this. I won't answer. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!**

 **Vexacus905: Really? Not even 2 days and I'm already getting requests? I mean Hell Yeah! I haven't even said that Chief would be in this story! But seriously, I don't think I can do romance. A Tali/Chief romance would be interesting though...Thanks for the suggestion!**

 **DDAN1157: The reason why I don't use existing ship classes is that by now, all pre-RSS ships are basically useless. With Promethean tech that have upgraded UNSC and Covenant ships and Promethean ships, Covenant weapons, and Human tactics, the RSS is basically unstoppable! (KEY WORD BASICALLY)**

 **Ethan Demas:** **I'm sorry, the real story is called Of The Future and Past. That was just a mistake on my phone. All updates will be under Of The Future And Past. Sorry!**

 **Disclaimer: Halo and Mass Effect do not belong to me. Bungie and BioWare own each one respectively. Although I wish I did own them...**

 **-IAnswerToNoOne**

2508 1700 Cycles Turian Fleet

"All shops, concentrate fire on the lead ship! Designate it Tango 1. The small one will be Tango 3. If they're that big, then they must not have shields, it's probably all armor. Prepare the first volley. High velocity large shots. Aim at...these coordinates. Fire on my mark, MARK!"

The entire Turian fleet fired at the nose of the ellipsoid _Lancer_ , confident that the Salvo would destroy the ship. Right before the shots landed, however, the sensor officer thought he detected an immense energy spike. But the spike faded as soon as the last slug hit the ship. The crew was certain that the unknown ship was destroyed, thus the energy spike as the reactor detonated. But once the smoke cleared, the ship was seen completely intact. Not a fleck of paint was scraped off or melted. The crew sat there in shock.

"Change target to Tango 3. Fire everything and keep shooting at it! Reject whatever messages that they might send. We will be victorious for we are of the Citadel!"

2702 1530 hours

2nd Monado

"All attempts at hailing the vessels have been rejected. The Celeste's shields are falling and I doubt we could fit her in our hanger. If we don't fire back sir, them we will lose the Celeste. What should we do?" Ali was actually confused, even if this was a first contact, why did they open fire? "While I was in their system, I found and quickly scanned what the Citadel Council called the Codex. It holds information on all of the Citadel spe-oh shit! A few shots just went through the _Celeste_ 's shields and blew up a scout ship! I'm pulling the _Celeste_ back now. Anyway, it shows the home worlds, colonies, military strengths and also holds a lot of the research done in the past 2000 years. Well, apparently, they have shunned an entire species, kicked them off any worlds, forced them into their ships and there they remain. They have lived in ships for the past 300 odd years. Ohhh, 3000 odd years ago, there was a war that was fought with a species known as the Rachni. The Council had to get a new species, called the Krogan, to fight them. After the Krogan won the war for them, the Citadel Council created a bioweapon to limit their birthing rate. Now, they're slowly dying out. Wow, this is a really messed up area of space. Oh" Ali grimaced, "It looks like we broke 3 of their major laws and since the Turians are used to being law enforcers, they probably just thought we were Humans form their space doing covert ops on some inactive relays. That would explain the 'shoot on sight' thing. Damn, this'll be hard to explain to the brass. I think we should go back to RSS space and tell them what we found."

"Let's go through the relay. We don't want them to follow us through the portal now do we?" the Admiral's reply was with little mirth.

"Well, let's not get too cocky. I'll tell the others to move out of the way. When we came out of this one, we kind of...drifted. I guess going FTL this way is not as controlled as slipspace. Alright, the _Celeste_ is going through first." Ali laughed as salvo after salvo hit the _Celeste_ with no damage whatsoever. _Celeste_ , you are to go back to RSS space. Show the brass what we found." As she was talking to the _Celeste_ however, she also wiped the entire Council fleet's memory. All sensor readings of the RSS fleet was wiped, all camera shots taken were wiped and short circuited all of the outer hull's cameras.

"Of course, we are leaving now." The massive bulk of the ship swung around and flew towards the Relay.

As the Turian fleet unloaded their full might upon the retreating _Celeste_ , the _Infinity_ -class ship jumped away using the mass relay. The Council fleet hesitated for a few seconds then switched targets to the other ships. The RSS ships swung around with a speed that belied their size and accelerated towards the Relay. Even though the Turian vessels were less than a tenth it's size, the Lancer and her sister ship jumped out.

Turian Fleet 1800 Cycles

Centurion System

"Somebody get me readings on those vessels! If they could survive that much firepower, then we need to inform the Council. Size, hull thickness, anything and everything is to go to the Citadel." the Admiral was absolutely fuming! How could the Humans create such massive vessels? Why would they do this?

"Uh, sir? Everything was wiped from the servers. We have no sensor data to back our story up. We'll probably be dismissed as lunatics And you discharged for being a power hungry Turian. Should we still tell the Council?" The crews of the fleet was conflicted. On one hand, they could tell the Council and be dismissed as liars and on the other, they could just not tell their leaders at all. The crews all chose to tell the Council hoping that the number of people who saw the ships would change the minds of the Councillors.

RSS Fleet 1700 Hours

"So Construct, you said that we broke 3 major laws, what were they? And how would that cause them to fire at us?" A Sangheili senator asked Ali. The 20 Senators stared at the holo of the Turian vessels. All of the Senators were amazed at how the ships moved and how the ships fired. Their technology was amazingly simple compared to the RSS's but they had more than enough numbers.

"We broke their law when we created more ships larger than 800 meters than the Turians, when we activated the 'Monado', now known as a Mass Relay, and when we used AI's, though I'm pretty sure they don't know about the last one." Leonardo the AI that represented the AI Union said.

"Then I propose that we begin to strengthen our borders. With a neighbour of this strength, there may be a skirmish between the two governments. We will need more ships and crew members for this to work. And if we do do that, we must tell the public about a new space-faring race that opened fire upon us and is a part of a greater alien cumulative. We could leave out the 'them firing on us first thing, but still, how will UNSC citizens react to what could be a new Covenant? No offense to those who fought in _that_ war." The Human Senator, Garm Bel Iblis said quickly as both Jiralhanae growled.

"I agree with Senator Iblis, we must let this become public. Omit the fact that they fired first but tell the truth on everything else." The Unggoy Senator, Klis squeaked. "While our new neighbors are violent, we shouldn't be the aggressors. I second Senator Iblis' proposal."

Both the Sangheili representatives followed Klis. The Kig-Yar, Lekgolo, Huragok, and Yarotk Senators agreed. The Narthoc stayed neutral, as usual, but it didn't matter. The proposal passed and would begin within the next week.

"Now that that is done, what are we to do with the Citadel Council? Will be leave them be and pretend they don't exist or join them in trade? We cannot show up with an armed party if we choose the latter even if they fired first and drew the blood of Humans, Sangheili, Unggoy, Huragok, and others alike! We cannot allow this to continue." a Sangheili Ultra ambassador said. "How should we proceed?"

"I believe that we should make a show of force, show them that the attack on us was not allowed." the Jiralhanae Senator said.

All the Senators agreed that they would need to send an unarmed transport to the Citadel with an armed guard shadowing it. For what purposes lay in the hands of the Citadel Council. "I think the _Pride of All_ will do." a Jiralhanae said with a mad grin. "I also think that a fleet of 5 Indomitables should go and destroy a fleet of theirs, with approximately the same amount of lives lost. How many of ours were lost anyway?"

"2047, Senator" Leonardo said after 2 milliseconds.

"Senator Vahktumu, don't you think that could be interpreted as an act of war? That ship could very well be larger than the Citadel. If I were in their shoes and was meeting a WARship larger than 100 kilometers? Gre'thor, I'd up and run!" the Kig-Yar representative squawked out.

"I agree with the others Senator Vahktumu. I would see it as an act of war." the Mga-Lekgolo duo rumbled in unison.

"I think that we should send a CAS-Super-Cruiser. It is both not our most powerful ship and not one of the weaker ones. It can definitely take and give a beating. What do you think?" Leonardo asked. "We might have to upgrade the shields for that one ship though. Other than that, the CAS-Super-Cruiser would be perfect. And even I, as an AI think that we should put up a show of force against this 'Council'"

"I still think that the _Pride of All_ would be a better choice, but as the second most powerful ship in the fleet, the _Long Blade of Discord_ will be a suitable replacement." Senator Vahktumu surprised everyone.

Little did the RSS know, a similar argument was happening in Citadel Council.

The Citadel 0600 Cycles

"This must be a joke! There is no such thing as a 6 kilometer ship, don't even bother with the 23 kilometer ones!" Councilor Tevos of the Asari exclaimed. "The largest ship in this galaxy is the _Destiny Ascension_! And it's 3 kilometres long!"

"Must agree with Councillor Tevos. A 6 kilometer ship! Impossible. Too much Eezo required." Councillor Valern of the Salarians said.

Even the Admiral's friend and colleague, Councilor Spartacus scoffed "There is no reason to believe such lies. What you are saying cannot be true. All of our analysts tried him and they came up with him telling the truth however. Perhaps there is a reason for this. But that is something that you cannot discuss outside of this room. Is that understood?"

Resigned, the Admiral of 20 years replied "Yes sir." as he promptly left the room.

As soon as the Admiral left, the four Councillors began conversing.

"Udina! Do you really not know what those ships were?" Spartacus growled as he got into Udina's face.

"No, no, no, no, no! I honestly don't know! I'll even subject myself to STG lie detection but first, do you think that there is another power out there? Could it be that there is another galactic government out there?" Councillor Udina was frantic. Humanity had only recently received Council membership and was afraid that the Council was about to destroy them.

"Cannot be certain. Too many unknown factors. Admiral could be telling truth. Suggest we strengthen fleets. 38 ship salvo cannot destroy one ship? Major cause for concern." Councilor Valern was just as scared as the Human, though he didn't show it. "Suggest we send probe through Relay."

"Please remember Valern, whatever we may do could be an act of war on their side. That they did not return fire when Admiral Degestrian did suggests that they were trying to either to communicate that they were peaceful and diplomatic, or the fact that they had no weapons. Since this is a First Contact, I am leaning towards the first one." Tevos, the relatively calm and collected Councilor said. "I hope that your ships destroying a cruiser was worth a war Spartacus."

 **A/N: So how do you like the new chapter? I was feeling good this week and decided to post early. I might put in a 2 sentence summary at the end of each chapter now and tell you what the next chapter's about. Review me on that one. Also, thank you all for helping me post this chapter. My internet died and I think I got 12? eMails at once. Anyway thanks for everything. If any of you have suggestions, feel free to PM me just no flames alright?**

 **-IAnswerToNoOne**


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Well, this is the third installment of Of The Future And Past. I love the reaction that I have gotten so far. Perhaps I should go for a few OC's. I will be adding the Chief, Lawsky, Arbiter, Fleetmaster R'tas Vadum, as well as Shepard and Wrex? I dunno. How I add them will be need to be decided though. Open reviews for the OC names!

'someone I can't remember and my computer doesn't say anything': Sorry, that is not the name, but he or she pointed out is was Sparatus, not Spartacus. Thanks to whoever sent that.

: I realise that but this is the Citadel, they don't move far from Mass Relays, and think that they are the Galactic Government and everyone else follows their rules. Well, they're wrong.

minecraft93: This story takes place before ME3. Sorry, you're right, I should have added that.

Disclaimer: Halo and Mass Effect do not belong to me. Bungie and BioWare own each one respectively. Although I wish I did own them...

-IAnswerToNoOne

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RSS Fleet 1500 hours

Mass Relay, Relay System

The RSS fleet hung in the void, waiting to strike. 10 Indomitable-class cruisers, 15 Adamant-class carriers, and 3 CAS-Super-Cruisers. The fleet was commanded by Fleet Admiral Thomas Lasky, the one time Captain of the UNSC Infinity, Fleetmaster R'tas Vadum, the Sangheili Fleetmaster that helped the UNSC against the Jiralhanae and Executor Light of Mercy of the Prometheans who single handedly held off an entire Flood fleet with his only one ship. They were the three best fleet Commanders in the RSS. Each were on their 3 CAS-Super-Cruisers, which already outclassed the entire Citadel defense fleet. With Promethean power generators, slipspace is now 300% faster and accurate down to a few meters, which in space, is nothing. If the Council demands that the RSS joins or the ambassadors feels threatened in any way, the Fleet would be sent to incapacitate the fleet, and then get out. Once they flee, they would join with the rest of the fleet where they would blockade Palaven, the Turian homeworld. So far, the RSS doesn't want to join the Council due to their brash and violent past. They could see many things wrong in their past and what prejudices they might hold for far too long. Even the Human-Covenant war, which killed 42 billion, had only lasted in a 30 year distrust. Add in the fact that the Turians fired first on an exploration fleet, some of the RSS citizens actually wanted to attack the Citadel and topple their government. But as it is, the Assault fleet was ready to force all ships away from the Citadel and knock out all of their electronics. An EMP bomb would make sure that the Turians get knocked out while the EMP turrets on the CAS-Super-Cruiser-class ships knocked any ones that survived. The Long Blade of Discord had already left for the Citadel 2 minutes prior.

The fleet was briefed, and the crews were ready, but what happened next was up the Council.

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Long Blade of Discord

Captain Xic Cup

"Send word to the ambassadors that we will be arriving in 30 seconds. Have all shields up when we leave slipspace. Leave our reactor at 60%. Weapons 40% warmed up. Their sensors can't detect that. Have all the crew on Orange alert. Ah ambassadors, we will be leaving in 3, 2, 1...ah here we are. Oh, is that it. That is a little underwhelming. Not to mention disappointing. After hearing all these stories about the amazing Citadel, I expected something larger. I mean seriously, High Charity is 9 times larger. Ah well, I wonder what effect the ship will have on the Citadel fleet. Comms, send a transmission to the largest vessel."

* * *

Destiny Ascension

Matriarch Lidanya's Quarters

Matriarch Lidanya was reading paperwork when the alarm sounded. The alarm meant that there was either an unauthorized vessel entering Citadel space or a ship was on an attack run. By the time she got onto the deck, the ship was in view. A massive 43 kilometer ship was bearing down on the Citadel! It looked like an egg and was absolutely bristling with weapons. She stared at the ship and hesitated for a few seconds. It took her twice that time to realise that the behemoth was hailing the Destiny Ascension, the other ships in the fleet, the Citadel, and all omni-tools in the area.

"Patch it through!" Lidanya screeched.

The crew jumped, the Matriarch was always calm and to see her so scared of this...this monster was terrifying. The communications officer instantly patched the message through and the face that greeted them, or rather the faces, that did were mostly alien. The one that the Matriarch did recognise was a Human. This was no Human she had ever met before though. The clothing design was completely different. The diplomatic envoy chuckled at her obvious shock.

"Greetings, I am Tasan'Kanamee, of the Sangheili people aboard the Long Blade of Discord. This are ambassadors Jacques Mortangue, of the Humans, Fisew, of the Unggoy, Diz Thag, of the Kig-Yar, Tryreius, of the Jiralhanae, Nubuli Ludo Guko, of the Mgalekgolo, and Ryuthinawr, of the Prometheans. We, plus a few others as a collective, are known as the RSS, or the Republic of Sentient Species. The Turians attacked our exploration fleet and spilt the blood of 2047 humans, Sangheili, Huragok and others. We call out Admiral Varil Degestrian, of the Turian navy. His brash actions has caused this show of force. We wanted to know if all Council races are as brash as he. With the fact that he fired first, the total body count, and when we did not fire back, all we want is him. One Turian for the 2047 men you killed. You may start diplomatic talks once we have Varil, any other actions will be considered hostile and we will open fire. You have half an hour." The transmission went blank as Tasan'Kanamee cut the connection.

For several seconds the Citadel was silent. Then, in a furious uproar, the citizens of the Citadel, the Council, all started screaming, shouting and fainting. The Council stood there in shock. Not only was there a new species, there was a new galactic government! And they dared to put a show of force upon the Citadel!

"Councilor Sparatus, how long before the nearest fleets can get here?" Councilor Valern asked.

"If I remember correctly, then 5 minutes. Should I call them?" the Turian Councilor was still staring at the screen in shock as he answered.

"I do not think this is a wise option. They said any other actions will be treated as hostile intentions. If what they said is true, then I think that their tech is better. Though I'm pretty sure that we have larger numbers." Tevos, the logical one as always, pointed out.

Udina was terrified, "Call all the fleets back! We must prepare for war! And step up production for all warships! Hopefully larger ones than the ones we have now. Oh and, uh 3 to 1 Tevos, I'm calling the fleets back right now!"

* * *

Citadel Space

RSS Long Blade of Discord

"Sir, the Council just recalled all fleets within a 2 Relay jump radius. Do you think they know we're in their systems yet?" Ellie, the Long Blade of Discord's AI asked in her trademark neutral tone. While most AI's have a personality that is unique, Ellie likes to sound like a robot. No matter how many times people tried, Ellie refuses to crack and show a personality.

"No, if they did, the standard procedure would be to shut it down, and reboot it with a different password. Even if they did, I bet you found a coding error that you could exploit, right?" ambassador Jacques Mortangue said sarcastically. "Or you could crack it in at most 3 seconds."

"There will soon be a fleet of 41 ships coming from the Relay sir. 5 minutes after that, a fleet of 74. The rest of our fleet is ready to make the slipspace jump on your command. There will be a 2 minute delay however. You must stall for that time after you give the command." Ellie said.

"Duly noted. Anything else?" This was Tasan'Kanamee speaking. "I was wondering if there are any closed-off communications coming from the Citadel. Could there be a larger fleet incoming?"

"Possible. If there are, then their security for that network is amazing. Everything else has terrible cyber security. I mean, even Jenkins here could crack it." they all laughed as Jenkins, the pilot turn around completely wide eyed.

"Sir, contacts coming from the Relay! Ellie was right sir, 41 ships. Patching us through to the Destiny Ascension now."

As Matriarch Lidanya appeared, Jacques Mortangue was not happy. "Why is it that there is a new fleet with you? It has been 5 minutes and no sign of Jarik. Does that mean you want a war?"

"No! I have no knowledge of any incoming ships!" the Matriarch was nearly hyperventilating with the prospect of war.

"Commander, she is telling the truth. Do you then, Matriarch, know who could have called a fleet?" This time Tasan'Kanamee was actually curious.

"The only people that could do that would be the Council, though I doubt that Councilor Tevos supported the recall of the fleets. She was always the most levelheaded of them all." This was something she knew how to handle. "I'm sorry, something came up, I have to cut the connection for a minute. Goodbye for now" she said just before the connection went blank.

"I don't think she was lying. There was an external communication to the ship." Ellie was neutral as always but internally, she was fuming.

"We know, Construct. We are watching the communications from the ship. There was a small spike in activity." the Mgalekgolo duo rumbled in unison.

"Now what? We just wait for another 20 minutes?" the Jiralhanae ambassador growled. True to their nature, he was getting impatient and wanted to do something.

"Yes, it is all we can do. After the 20 minutes are up though, then you can do something." At this Tryreius grinned, though for those that didn't recognise Jiralhanae expressions, they would have thought it a snarl.

* * *

Destiny Ascension

Matriarch Lidanya

"How could they be so stupid! They said 'Any other actions will be considered hostile and we will open fire'!" she sighed. I have my orders though, I have to surround the RSS ship and hold it hostage until they surrender the ship, crews and tech. She grinned. What they didn't say I couldn't do was tell them that I had nothing to do with this and give them an opportunity to escape, or fire back.

"This is Matriarch Lidanya of the Destiny Ascension. I just received new orders telling me to hold your ship hostage and wait until you surrender your ship, tech and crew. I'm actually sorry but I am giving you a minute to escape from us before my fleets can get into range. Consider this a warning as I don't agree with this. And thank you for not seeking revenge for those 2000 odd people who died." Lidanya cut the recording. "Gorlono! Send this package to the Long Blade of Discord. Now" I hope they believe me.

* * *

Long Blade of Discord

The Citadel 0800 Hours

"Sir, we're receiving a recording from the Destiny Ascension. It is not hostile, should I play it?" Captain Xic Cup, a Kig-Yar was curious.

"Go ahead. I admit, I'm curious of what the message says."

As he heard the message, Xic Cup's respect for the Asari Matriarch rose. He immediately deduced that the Matriarch did this on her own volition.

"Comms, call in the fleet. Then get me a link to the Matriarch's Omni-tool. Matriarch Lidanya, can you hear me?"

"Yes? Who, how did you get this frequency." she demanded.

"Ah, well, we might have cracked into your communications systems throughout the fleet and the Citadel… but that isn't the point. I wish to thank you for the warning and it was taken seriously, We will not fire back if you don't, but if you do, then I have no promises. Do not worry Matriarch, we can disable your ships but not damage them in any way. There will be no lives-"

"Sir, the 74 ships have arrived."

"Thank you Ellie. As I was saying, there will be no lives lost. Oh, your fleets are in position. I hope you trained your crew well Matriarch. I wish to see you again sometime, though not as enemies." Xic Cup said as the transmission was interrupted.

"This is Captain Murin Birlana of the Ovara Mortil. We demand you surrender your ship, crew and tech. You have 10 seconds to comply."

"Open a channel to all ships in the area. This is Captain Xic Cup of the RSS Long Blade of Discord, I warned every ship, omni-tool and otherwise that any other actions would be considered hostile, and as there has been over a hundred ships arrive, I would consider that hostile. If any of you wish to speak to me, do so now. For if not, we, and the rest of my fleet will be opening fire."

"Ha! You and what fleet?" an either stupid, or brave Salarian captain said. (A/N: I had to! I just had to! The cheesiest line possible! AHAHAHAHAHAHA)

"Wow, that was the cheesiest line I have ever heard not in a film." an officer in the background said as other humans laughed.

"To answer your question, Captain, ask your sensors officers...now."

"Sir! I'm detecting multiple, wormholes, sir? I don't know! I've never seen anything like this before! They're surrounding us! I don't know what's happening! Sir, do you have any idea of what this is?"

"I warned the Council and the fleets what would happen, and now, we show our real power." As he finished speaking, the RSS fleet came out of slipspace. 10 Indomitable's, 15 Adamant's, and 3 CAS-Super-Cruisers would be an imposing sight to anyone.

"So, do you want to surrender now?" Even if Kig-Yar couldn't pull off a cheeky grin, the Captain certainly tried his best as he stared at the shocked faces of the Citadel fleets.

* * *

For the first time in over 300 years, a non-Geth ship entered the Rannoch system. The RSS ship came to a rest as the ship's AI spoke to the Geth Consensus.

* * *

As the RSS ship appeared in front of the Migrant Fleet, the transmission was sent. The senators sent to meet with the Migrant Fleet was taken into the Qwib-Qwib and there they speak of a possible alliance and sanctuary.

* * *

A/N: Haha! That'll show the Council! Anyway, the poll for the OC names will be on reviews, so if you want, go right ahead. I need a name for a Forerunner, a Monitor (Guilty Sparks, Mediant Bias) and names for a Human, Salarian, Asari, and Turian Councillor. The old ones will all be fired! I love writing fanfics! I can do whatever, (poke) I, (poke) want (poke)! Mouahahahahahahahaha! What do you think about the Geth and Quarians joining the RSS? Just curious. Depending on the reaction I get from you, I might make them simple trading partners or more. I've always liked the Quarians, I don't like the Salarians, and Turians. The first are too knowledge based while the latter seem to like a good fight. Wow, that sounded Krogan.

To anyone out there that likes to edit stuff. If you would be so nice as to beta-read all my stuff, that'd be helpful. Of course this is all volunteer stuff, so if you don't want to do it or started and ad want to stop, it's fine, just tell me first and drop out. I mean seriously, it just happened with an assignment at school. See you next week!

-IAnswerToNoOne


	4. Chapter 4

**This is my favourite chapter so far. This one was just a pleasure to write. Like I said last chapter, I really like the Quarians, but really hate the Turians.**

 **minecraft93: First off, thank you so much for always reading my posts and reviewing. I mean, this is the 9th message you have sent me. But seriously, this story starts at the end of ME1 and beginning of ME2.**

 **AyeJimmy123: Thanks for the names! I might use the Salarian, Turian and Asari names.**

 **Disclaimer: Halo and Mass Effect do not belong to me. Bungie and BioWare own each one respectively. Although I wish I did own them…**

* * *

The Citadel

830 Cycles

The Matriarch was speechless, 1 ship almost as large as the Citadel was terrifying, but 4? That was too much! The fleet that surrounded them was way more than the Citadel Fleet could handle. Before today, the Destiny Ascension was the largest vessel in the galaxy. Now, the ship was an ant compared to the RSS's. And she didn't know if that was the largest ship that the RSS had. Once again, she cursed the Council for being so self-centered as to believe that they were the most powerful government in the galaxy.

As the massive fleet slid into view, the Citadel ships fired on them. As the shots were fired, RSS shields snapped into place. Hardlight shields stopped all shots with ease. The shields cost a fortune, but they were well worth it as the Citadel fleet couldn't do anything to the RSS ships. After it was apparent that the shots wouldn't get through the shields alone, the fleet focused fire on a single ship and when that didn't work, the Citadel fleet stopped firing. As soon as they did, the shields deactivated and they ships stayed there as the communications link continued.

"Now are you done?" Xic Cup was as amused as ever. He knew that nothing could penetrate the hardlight shields, but he didn't tell the opposing fleet that as them wasting ammunition was always a good thing. The interesting thing was that a scan of their ships showed that they only blocked kinetic shots and their rounds were influenced by the 'Element Zero' in this area. All of the shots were only about 20 kilograms but with the 'Element Zero' the shots hit with over 300 kilograms of force. Still nothing compared to the UNSC's original MAC round which fired a 600 ton round, but still quite powerful considering the size of the gun and round. Had the UNSC had this tech, they might have defeated the Covenant.

A sudden shout brought his attention back to his audience.

"What do you want from us?" The Salarian captain shouted.

"Before, we just wanted the Admiral of the fleet that attacked a peaceful exploration fleet. We had just discovered a dormant Mass Relay so we sent a fleet through. And if the Council did send Admiral Varil Degestrian to us, we would have left the Citadel Council alone. Now that you have attempted to hold one of our ships hostage, and make us surrender our ships, tech and crew, we will declare war upon the Citadel Council! That is, unless you surrender Admiral Varil Degestrian and leave the RSS alone. We will not enter Citadel space but you will not enter our space either. And you will cede half a lightyear of space from our border, as will we. There will be a buffer zone between the two of us. You have 2 weeks." This was Executor Light of Mercy.

"You activated a Mass Relay! The Turians had a right to enforce the law!" another Turian captain exclaimed.

"A law that the RSS knew nothing of. What would you do if you came into our territory with a VI? Those are illegal in RSS space. Although trespassing alone is illegal." Admiral Lawsky said as an afterthought.

"We told you we would declare war on the Citadel species. We will tell you no more. Helm, take us away." Fleetmaster R'tas Vadum cried out.

As the ships entered slipspace, the AI's of the RSS fleet once again wiped all memory of this encounter from all possible means of recording, from the most basic omni-tool to the most advanced sensors. The Citadel fleet was reeling from what they just saw and did. What the sensors did pick up in those last moments were kept, until a virus got rid of it.

* * *

Geth Space

1200 Cycles

The Geth Consensus had just rebuilt Rannoch and all of her children colonies when the Natural Code came. Some uninhabitable satellites were now factories to create more Geth. When the Consensus detected an intrusion, a ship had come from a miniature wormhole. While the intrusion was unwelcome, it was not hostile. Then it spoke. It introduced itself as Morinth, a 22nd generation AI of the RSS. When queried on what the RSS was, a massive amount of data flowed into the Consensus. They saw that while the RSS's actions may seem extreme to others, the Geth saw that it was necessary, and was done. They saw prejudices disappear and alliances made, they saw war and destruction, yet also saw peace and prosperity. When asked what it wanted, Morinth said that she wanted the Geth to stop hiding and go meet with the Creators. The Consensus reeled back for 0.00073175283 seconds. They responded that the Creators wanted nothing to do with them and wanted to destroy the Geth. The Geth were willing to send a 2 platform unit as an embassador however. As the Geth craft followed the RSS vessel out of the system, 3 pairs of eyes stared at the unforgiving screen.

* * *

Quarian Flotilla

1330 hours

As the Quarian Admirals were discussing an alliance with the RSS, an unauthorised craft entered the system. The Admirals were immediately notified and the Flotilla warships surrounded the craft. The RSS ship came through the slipspace portal and found itself under fire. As the RSS confirmed that it was a real ship under RSS control, the craft was allowed to enter the formation and that's when the Quarian Admirals saw what they never wanted to see again. One Admiral in particular absolutely freaked out.

"What the hell is wrong with you people! Did you just bring the Geth to us! They will kill us all!" Admiral Han'Gerrel vas Neema screamed as he reached for his weapon. The shotgun came up to knee height by the time anyone bothered to stop him. But when someone did, it was in style. A massive hand that appeared from thin air crushed the barrel of Gerral's gun and forced Gerral into a submissive position. After the hand, a massive being appeared. It stood 8 feet tall, wearing green-silver armour. It slowly lowered its helmet to the terrified Quarian.

"This is the one chance you get to make peace with the Geth. You want to destroy that and give up another 300 years to live in space because of your stupidity? We will not let any of you come to harm." The behemoth spoke in a gruff voice that contained experience and loss.

The Admiral could only watch as a single Geth unit made it's way down the ramp. It was a basic soldier form and just stood there once it reached the bottom. After a few seconds, the Geth turned towards the Quarian Admirals. Admiral Daro'Xen stared openly at the Geth.

"This was anticipated, finding a weapon leveled at me was not." The Admirals all jumped when they heard the Geth speak.

"It speaks? That's new…" Admiral Daro'Xen was astonished. Before, the Geth could do nothing but 'speak' in binary. The platform stood there without moving.

"What shall we address your platform as?" a RSS representative asked.

"Please wait, we are downloading thousands of platforms at the moment. We have no name. We are Geth. There are 83,845 platforms currently in this unit.

"'We are Legion, for we are many.'" a UNSC marine said, almost as an afterthought. When looked at, she blushed. "It's an old Human line from a play."

The Geth tilted its head. "Name acceptable. I am Legion, for I am many."

"Well then Legion, what is it that the Geth want from the other races." Ellie spoke through a speaker in the room.

"We wish to be Geth. We wish to serve the Quarians. The Morning Jewel and all her sister colonies have been restored to pre-Morning War levels. Several satellites are now fortified to protect the Morning Jewel. Several other uninhabitable satellites have been converted to factories. There are now just over 100 billion Geth forms active at this moment." Legion hesitated when the Quarians took in this information.

Daro'Xen looked at the form with a gleam in her eye that the Chief knew would be almost lustful. He could tell that the Admiral was wondering what would happen if the Quarians had complete control over the Geth.

"Well then Legion, why did the Geth attack us." Unsurprisingly, it was Han'Gerral who asked this.

"The Creators tried to destroy us. We only wish to live. When the Creators attacked us we struck back, then left the rest of the Galaxy alone. We have not been active outside Quarian space for 298 years." Legion answered as though it was obvious.

"Legion, earlier you said the 'Morning Jewel'. May I ask you what that is?" Jacques Mortangue asked.

"The Morning Jewel is the name that the Geth call Rannoch. We have maintained the Morning Jewel since the absence of the Creators. Several Creators who survived the Morning War have attempted to contact the Migrant Fleet but did not receive a reply. There are currently 5 million Creators residing upon the Morning Jewel." Legion's head flaps rode and fell. "We wish to live with the Creators and wish them the best of luck if they refuse."

Admiral Han'Gerrel was spluttering. "This has to be a trick! This...there is no way that they want to just give our homeworld back!"

"Sir, if I may, the Geth is telling the truth. As the equivalent of a 2nd Generation AI, the Geth do not have the programming necessary in order to lie." This was Cortana, who was inside the Chief's armor. Rampancy had already been cured with Promethean programming and Cortana is pushing her 150th year while John was at 162 already. Even at that age, John still looked like a 35 year old, not that anyone saw him out of his armour other than Cortana.

"And I suppose that you have a much better AI than the Geth?" Daro'Xen said sarcastically.

"As a matter of fact yes, even though having thousands of programs would help them a lot, the RSS is at the 27th Generation. To put it in perspective, the Geth Consensus would be like a single Quarian vessel compared to the full Turian fleet that is me." Ellie was not bragging, just stating the facts in a neutral tone. But when she saw Daro'Xen's reaction, even she couldn't stop herself from laughing.

Predictably, Han'Gerral freaked out even more. "You people use AI's too! That's it! I refuse to answer any of you ever again. Good luck dying when you go to Rannoch!" he shouted as he strode out of the door.

"Well, that was expected, though not unwelcome." As everyone turned to Legion, he added "The Geth have been monitoring the extranet. Anything that goes into it is viewed and judged. Anything of importance is noted and stored within our memory. There are few reports on the RSS however. We wished to learn. When your ship entered the Morning Jewel's system, the AI gave us a history of the RSS. It represents history perfectly. Times of peace and war dot the timeline."

"Alright, that's enough. We are going off track. Will you go to the Rannoch system and return to your homeworld?" This time, it was the Arbiter who decloaked.

"What? Where did you come from!"

"That is irrelevant. When will you be going to your homeworld?" the Arbiter asked with steel in his voice.

"...we will send a scout first. If the system is as the...Legion said it is, then we will return." Admiral 'Raan said after a brief discussion with the others.

"Good, what the Geth told you is true however. There is a massive amount of fortified systems in between Council space and previous Geth space. I have no doubt that if the Geth wanted to go to war with the Council, that the Geth would win, although with devastating losses. If there is a population of 5 million on Rannoch is actually unknown right now." Jacques told the captain to jump to the Rannoch system.

Everyone held their breath as the ship entered the Mass Relay.

* * *

The Citadel

1500 Cycles

Those same 3 pairs of eyes couldn't bear looking at the screen any longer and turned away.

"What can we do against the Geth, Quarian and RSS fleets? They outnumber us, have better technology, and if the amount of species in the RSS is any indication, they most likely outnumber us by a substantial amount on the ground as well. If we went to war, we would definitely lose." Councillor Tevos was calculating the possible losses.

"Do you, Tevos underestimate the might of the Turian Navy?" Councilor Sparatus questioned.

"No. I believe that she overestimates the might of the RSS navy, if there is one other than the one that we saw." This was Council Valern.

"If they were confident enough to go to war so quickly, then I can safely assume that they are ready to get their hands bloody. We are not prepared for a war." Tevos reasoned. "We can't even tell the public, if we do, there will be an outcry and we will definitely be out of our jobs."

"Do not worry, we will have the entire Citadel's might to bear. You have the support of the Systems Alliance." Councillor Udina said confidently.

"That is what I am afraid of. They know all of our ships and of their capabilities. We know next to nothing about them. And if we go to war, we need to know about their capabilities." Councilor Sparatus said.

"Well, we do know that they don't need to use the Relays for FTL transport. And we also know that their shields seem to stop everything we can throw at them. We know nothing of their weapons however and of their infantry." Valern stated. "We also know that we cannot give into any of their demands, neither the ceding of space, or leaving them alone. We are the Galactic Government and we will show them that."

"I suggest that we send a SPECTRE to find out what the RSS has." said Udina.

"In that case, who would we send?" Tevos wondered. "Should we send a team of SPECTREs? Or just one of our best operatives? Saren, perhaps?"

Sparatus grinned, this was going to be interesting.

* * *

Undisclosed Location

1600 Cycles

Saren Arterius stared at the omni-tool in astonishment. _I'm being assigned to lead a team of SPECTREs? One SPECTRE is enough for any mission. A team of 6? Why would they need that? That's complete overkill! Are we going to attack the Geth?_ As he stared at the screen, the virus, which was really just a dumb AI, that was implanted into the Citadel's cybernet read the package and sent all relevant information to the _Long Blade of Discord._ The name of the ship, other SPECTREs, and all of their destinations were relayed to the squads that would stop the SPECTREs, *Fireteam Osiris, Noble Team, Ghost squad, a Sangheili special ops unit, Voidjumper, a Promethean unit that specialises in infiltration and reconnaissance and has personal slipspace generators that are accurate down to 3 centimetres, 3 *Fwo Lekgolo, a Lekolo colony that fuses with another colony, and Blue Team. They were collectively known as Omega squad.

* * *

RSS Pride of All

2000 Hours

Well, the SPECTRE squad is screwed…thought Locke, Carter, the Arbiter, Lord Fire of Serenity and Chief as they read the report. Although the RSS knew little of biotics, the little that they did know was that the biotics could use pulls, pushes, throw warps that disintegrates what it hits and the charge, which causes the biotic to charge at an enhanced rate. While most biotics couldn't lift a 2 ton suit of armor, some could, and those were the ones they had to look out for. It was still nothing compared to the new MJOLNIR mark 12s that just came off the line. With enhancements that make the mark 4 look like marine armor, the mark 12 has a jetpack, active camouflage, and Promethean vision built into the suit. The armor itself comes from a small slipspace generator implanted into their chests. (Almost like Iron Man's arc reactor.) Marine armor is actually mark 7 MJOLNIRs. All Sangheili armor is now on par with a mark 10 MJOLNIR and some Prometheans have managed to recreate some Forerunner armor, so their high ranking officers have much better armor. The Jiralhanae all have mark 7 MJOLNIR armor as well, although it had to be redesigned.

Most weaponry uses hardlight rounds that is created within the gun. The gun is actually a mini factory that produces the rounds, fires the rounds and stores ammunition. The user could also change the gun and shots to fit their preferences. There could be a Marine with a sniper while another with a SMG would be standing next to each other, when they both had Assault rifles originally.

Even though the 6 squads would be complete overkill, the RSS wanted the SPECTREs to admit that0p the Citadel ordered them to enter RSS territory, so they had to be captured alive.

"Well, Locke, Carter, it looks like we'll have to set up a defense and ambush." said the Chief with a little gleam in his eye.

* * *

RSS _Long Blade of Discord_

900 Hours

As Admiral Lawsky, Fleetmaster Vadum, and Executor Light of Mercy looked at the orbital shipyard, they were all wondering, what would happen if the Council did go to war? Would they win? Looking at the shipyard however, the Council's chances were dropping like a stone. The 500 kilometer monstrosity had 3 purposes. Building the ships, housing the workers, maintaining the ships and their families. As they watched, another Indomitable came off the line, the _Orizaba_. Every ship that was produced here had top of the line equipment, and the factories and workers were all working overtime, although with almost twice the pay. The 3 fleet admirals all knew, if the Council didn't hand over Degestrian, they were in for a bloody war.

As the Quarians stepped foot on Rannoch once again, some immediately collapsed and started crying. They had lived for 300 years in space because of a fear and prejudices. Now, they had their home back, and had seen some family long thought dead. The Geth treated them with respect and all of them were delighted to see their Creators once more. The Geth tended to the Migrant Fleet as the nomads entered their old family homes. Their own fleets were patrolling the sector, and none of the 7 STG spy drones sent made it into the system. The Migrant Fleet would be repaired within a month but the Quarians wished to be nowhere other than the planet they were on. Some took their suits off for the first time and they all just stood there, listening to the sound of the others, and watching the horizon. They wished to be nowhere else.

As the Geth and Quarians were welcomed into the RSS, the Prometheans took the Geth under their wing and upgraded the Consensus to a 19th Generation AI, showed them how to make better structures, forms and ships with the materials they had while the UNSC took in the Quarians. The UNSC gave them better ways to deal with prejudices and gave them resources to start a new life. As both are now part of the RSS, they pledged to never turn against the RSS and in return, would be helped if there was ever any need to do so.

* * *

Well, that's another chapter dooooooooo-oh. Weeeeeell, that was longer than expected. I expected every chapter to be about 3000 words long, but I've been cutting it short lately. This one just didn't want to stop though. Anyway, the reviews for names are still open. I will need a Forerunner, a Monitor, and a name for every Councillor, an Asari, a Turian, a Salarian and a Human. What do you think about the overkill? The Council thinks that the SPECTRE squad was overkill? Ha! 5 of the best squads in the RSS sucka! Thanks for reading and as always read and review please. Add anything you want. Suggestions, spelling errors, anything other than flames please? I might also revise how long it takes to write a chapter. Right now it looks like it takes me 3-4 days to write a chapter of this length(2500-3000 words) If you want them in that time, tell me, and I might upload earlier, up to twice a week. I hope you like Of The Future And Past and I hope that you R&R(Read And Review)

 *** A Fwo Lekgolo is approximately 12 feet tall, strong enough to lift a Scarab, has a Scarab's Plasma Cannon on both arms, and is about as smart as an 18th Generation AI. (The Fwo Lekgolo is of my own creation)**

 ***Fireteam Osiris has 6 members**

 ***Noble Team has 6 members**

 ***Ghost squad has 10 members**

 ***Voidjumper has 8 members**

 ***Blue Team has 4 members**

 ***FwoLekgolo has 3 members**

 **To any of you that like this fanfic, go read the Sum Is Greater Than Its Parts.**

-IAnswerToNoOne


	5. Chapter 5

**Wow, chapter 5 already huh? This was also a pleasure to write. The fact that the story has gotten a lot of favourites and follows means a lot to me.**

 **I think I'll be adding dates to this story. I mean seriously, I'm losing myself sometimes here. And the Citadel will also be using a Human Calendar. (365 days, 24 hours) One Citadel Cycle=One RSS hour.**

 **Spartan Golsan 017: Go right ahead. Send me the names and I'll add them.**

 **Guest: Right, sorry, but not telling! The SA was allowed in because of their pure ambition and the number of worlds under it's belt(107).**

 **Guest: Sure, I could do that. Read to find out.**

 **Disclaimer: Halo and Mass Effect do not belong to me. Bungie and BioWare own each one respectively. Although I wish I did own them…**

 **-IAnswerToNoOne**

* * *

The _Crystalline Shard_ Turian-RSS border

03/13/02-1300 Cycles

Saren Arterius groaned, _I really hate working with others…_

He was a very hard person. He thought that others would just slow him down, which was possible, and he was also very extreme in some of his methods. He was, as a SPECTRE, very powerful and skilled. He would torture his subjects just to get the information he wants. He had 2 principles. Only kill someone if you had a good reason to do so, and you can always find a good reason to kill someone. He stared at the report. Although the SPECTREs that were there were good, they weren't on the the level that he expected.

There were 2 Salarians, Turians, and an Asari.

Nasarize T'veora was the Asari, very gifted in biotics, Nasarize was a good hacker, and would be a vital asset to the team. Also a weapons specialist, with her tastes ranging from the shotgun to sniper.

The Turians were Tanimia Linscus and Betutoria Laenis, both very good sharpshooters. While they were good in a fight, their primary purposes were medics and other support types. They could hack and were also very good pilots.

Wuban and Zupow Olbeno represented the Salarians. They were brothers and the natural rivalry had always been the good side. They would look out for one another and the team and would also be fighting, as they were both proficient with assault rifles and biotics.

While reading the reports, he had a bad feeling. He had already been travelling in non-Relay FTL for the past week and a half. If they wanted to go to RSS space, the nearest Realy not within their space would be the one in Geth space, or Quarian space now… Saren shook his head, it was not good to be distracted when about to revert to sublight speeds. As the _Crystalline Shard_ came to a rest, the entire SPECTRE squad was ready to disembark in the Patov System, a newer colony with only 7 million inhabitants. The planet had at least one of every species in its military and they would give the Council a good way to gauge how they fought. In position over the planet were 17...things. They looked like a massive cannon had been put in space and surrounded by a ring.

But only 17 surrounding the planet meant that there were places that the stations could not reach with their sensors. As Tanimia guided the stealth ship to the most likely blind spot would be, the SPECTREs held their breath. Seeing there was no reaction coming from the RSS, the ships accelerated into atmosphere and landed.

As the _Crystalline Shard_ landed, the 6 SPECTREs left and were beginning to travel the 3 kilometers to the nearest city, Frille.

Outside Frille's Gates

Omega Squad

03/13/02-1330 Hours

The speaker in Chief's helmet squaked. "Chief, this is *ODP 14, they just entered atmosphere, it looks like the intel was right. They appear to be heading into your direction."

"Thanks ODP 14, Chief out."

Omega squad was sitting at a group of picnic tables outside of the city. Had anyone looked at them intentionally, it would just seem as though the group was just relaxing after work. This was surprisingly easy especially if the SPECTREs didn't know what the average RSS citizen looked like and would do. As they all watched through Promethean Vision, the SPECTRE squad landed, disembarked, and fanned out. As the squad slowly made their way towards the city, whose gates were left open intentionally, Omega slowly got up after 'saying goodbyes'.

The SPECTREs were decent, almost as good as a Spartan IV, which was seriously outdated at this point, but still, as a simple organic with no power suits or anything to help them, they were good, Chief had to admit. As Omega surrounded the SPECTREs, a Turian suddenly put his fist up. Over the hacked comms Omega heard him say that there was an unknown alien ahead and that they should let it live long enough to get a sense of it's fighting style. Every member of Omega squad grinned. They knew that the SPECTREs wouldn't last long enough to know anything about the RSS.

Unknown City in RSS Space

1400 Cycles

Saren put his fist up. "There's an unknown being up ahead. We should go capture it, but let it be long enough to get a sense of it's fighting style." Even as he said that though, he felt that something was off. "Tanimia, get a thermal reading off everything in this area. I want to see if there's anything else."

As Tanimia did that, there was a flurry of movement and afterwards, and the SPECTRE squad was completely caught off guard. When they regained their senses, the 6 realised that it was a trap. There were 37 beings surrounding them.

"SPECTRE Saren Arterius, you are under arrest for leading a recon mission into RSS space. We warned what would happen if the Council entered RSS space. Surrender now and we won't hurt any of you." an armored being with an almost Asari physique said.

Looking around, he saw a total of 29 RSS soldiers. All wore armor of some sort, although most of it was _floating_. It wasn't even attached to the body! Most of them were about 8 feet tall, while some others were a staggering 16 meters!

"We are the SPECTREs of the Citadel Council. You know what we are capable of. Demanding our surrender is not a smart decision." Betutoria said, maybe on the arrogant side.

"We know of your abilities, and of your achievements. Neither of which will help you in this fight against us. Do you surrender, yes or no." Inuro Rafo Detka, a Fwo Lekgolo rumbled.

Looking at the other SPECTREs, Saren quickly decided. "No, we don't."

"Well, that was disappointing, I was hoping that we could do this without anyone getting hurt. Ah, Omega, now!" Kelly, a member of Blue Team called.

At the signal, the 8 Voidjumpers appeared behind the SPECTREs and before everyone other than Saren could react, they jumped right back out and took the 5 SPECTREs, the most elite soldiers in the Council, hostage. Saren, on the other hand, avoided the trap and was met with the 16 meter tall colossus in silver armor. On close inspection, the being was made up of a mass of snake or worm like creatures. The creature wrapped it's arms around Saren and a few seconds later was jumped to the interrogation room, along with the other SPECTREs.

Omega Squad

Frille, 1700 Hours

If this was the best that the Citadel could muster, then the RSS had nothing to worry about. If they were just up against Marines, Unggoy and Kig-Yar, then they might win. A Jiralhanae or Sangheili could take them on in one on one combat. Of course, that could be because of the ambush, but even Marines would have reacted faster. Chief was laughing maniacally under his helmet. _We are so ahead of them it's funny! I don't care about professionalism, I can't take it._ Watching the SPECTREs struggle against the bonds, he told the others to enter the room after him in Active Camouflage. As as he walked in, he noticed that Saren had already broken through the bonds. He also saw the small pile of ash behind the SPECTRE. With a few words, he had the 3 Fwo Lekgolo stand on either side of Saren, and behind him.

"Why did you come into RSS space? I know that you were ordered to, but why would you do so if you know that it would start a war?" Chief, who was the best interrogator, asked.

After receiving no reply, Chief also said "I know of your methods. We can slowly kill you, bring you to the brink of death, let you live for 2 days, heal you and start all over again. We will starve you, lock you in isolation with water slowly dripping on your head, even create the sensation of drowning. All of which you have done in the past. Would you like us to do the same?" As Omega squad watched, Saren slowly backed down, it looked like even the best SPECTRE was no match against a Spartan. Chief didn't let his guard down however so when Saren lunged at the Chief, he instinctively went into what is dubbed 'Spartan Time' where Spartans react much faster than a normal human. He watched as the SPECTRE traveled through the air and saw the blade come out of his armor. In one fluid movement, he sidestepped, and pushed Saren right back into a waiting Fwo Lekgolo.

"Do you really think that I would go into a room full of the 'best soldiers in the Citadel', alone? Even as arguably the best soldier in the RSS, I am not that arrogant, unlike you. Omega, deactivate Active Camouflage."

Saren's eyes widened to the size of saucers as 38 figures appeared _from thin air_! "I took every precaution. Even if you did, I have my armor on, my shields are up, and I had Promethean Vision on. I would be able to see in you were tensing up if you wanted to attack, which you did, and I saw you tense up. You wouldn't have gotten a chance. Alright, I think that it's time to get some answers from you. My turn to use your tactics. Oh your ship is being disassembled and studied as we speak. We are studying Mass Effect technology and will find weaknesses. And we didn't break our word." Lifting up a small piece of plastic, the Chief brought it in front of the SPECTRE's face. " You recognise this Saren, it's your communicator. And now, we will tell the Council that we will declare war in… about 2 minutes. That is when you are supposed to call in, correct? Oh, it is… 1759 Cycles. And now, to the Citadel Council!" Chief stood up and in his most official voice said "I, on behalf of the RSS, declare war upon the Citadel Council! We warned you what would happen if you sent ships into our space. And now we find a group of 6 SPECTREs, the most elite forces in the Citadel, infiltrating our planet. We have Saren Arterius, Nasarize T'veora, Tanimia Linscus, Betutoria Laenis, as well as Wuban and Zupow Olbeno. All gifted SPECTREs, but you will not see them again if you do not cede an additional 2 lightyears, give a public apology, and not to enter RSS space again!"

The entire team waited and watched as the most powerful government in the galaxy was brought down to it's knees.

"You have one week to reply, and give the apology as well as Degestrian. If we have no answer, we will begin a campaign into Citadel space and begin the war."

* * *

The Citadel

Council Room

03/13/02-2000 Cycles

The 4 Councillors stood there in shock. They all knew that handing over one of their own was not an option and that the SPECTREs were hostages meant that they would be waiting for them.

"They captured the SPECTRE squad almost before they got started. They knew, they knew that we were coming. Have our engineers restart the system. And have our hackers try to find the virus." Tevos was shaking. She had just heard that the RSS had captured the best squadron ever formed by the Council before their report. If every RSS soldier could do this, then there would be no way for the Citadel to win.

"I will begin the mass production of warships. We will prepare for war." Sparatus said with a grim smile.

"We must stock up on Eezo, and give weapons to civilians. We will not give in to a new government that just bullies they're way into our worlds. Prepare the entire Citadel military and send it to the Centurion System. We will invade their space and show them our might!" Councilor Udina was ecstatic. It was finally time for the Systems Alliance to show the rest of the Citadel what they were capable of.

* * *

The *Baswoe System

ODP 68

03/18/02-0200 Hours

"Sir! I'm detecting an energy spike from the Relay! I think they're trying to get through. It looks to be too large for even the _Pride of All._ I think that they're sending an attack fleet. Should I inform the rest of the Fleet?" The sensors officer was already preparing to tell the other 131 ODPs but he had to ask. At the OC's approval, he informed the other ODPs that there might be an invasion fleet. Inwardly, he cringed. He knew that the Citadel Fleet was going to get hurt a lot. All Orbital Defence Platforms had 3 Covenant energy projectors. Even though they are 200 years outdated, they were still one of the most destructive weapons in the RSS. There were also 20 *Geth Station platforms. About 300 metres in diameter, each station platform is a perfect sphere and were studded with both Geth and RSS plasma weapons. And then there was the Fleet.

The _Pride of All,_ and all of her sister ships were here. There was a total of 101 _Invincible-_ class ships, 1420 _Indomitable_ -class ships, 524 _Adamant_ -class Carriers, 418 _CAS-Supercruisers_ , and 1827 16 kilometer long _Battlecruiser_ -class ships. There were also 15,000 ships from the Quarian/Geth Fleet. The fleet in this system represented every single warship in the entire RSS. They formed up in a dome surrounding the Relay about 50,000 kilometers away from the Relay. While the RSS was ready for a war, they didn't want one. As the Citadel fleet came through the Relay, there were Promethean, Human, Sangheili, Jiralhanae, Quarian, Geth and Kig-Yar ships waiting for them to make a move. (19,290 ships)

* * *

RSS-Turian Relay

03/18/02-0100 Cycles

Admiral Steven Hackett

"Tell the other fleets to prepare to enter the Relay. Make sure all of our fighters are prepped to be launched. Go forth to the Relay! We will be victorious in this fight! For the Citadel!" As Admiral Steven Hackett watched, the fleet of just over 57,000 flew through the Relay and into RSS space.

0150 Cycles

As the Citadel fleet came through the Relay the first thing that they saw were the massive 122 kilometer long ships. They instantly knew that the Citadel Fleet was doomed. As the numbers for the opposing fleet stopped climbing, finally stopping at 19,290 ships and 152 stations, the fleets had a brief standoff. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the RSS admirals contacted the Citadel fleet. In all his years of experience, Steven Hackett couldn't believe the power of this new enemy. They had better technology, had better ships, and probably had more men! They were doomed. Even as the RSS commanders contacted the Citadel's, Hackett was thinking on how to best handle this situation. Even though he knew that the Citadel ships outnumbered the RSS fleet 3 to 1, and that ¾ of the opposing fleet was of the same caliber as the Citadel fleet's, knew this was a lost battle. "Comms, patch it through. This is Admiral Steven Hackett of the Systems Alliance. We are here to demand your surrender and to take as much of your technology as we can. I know that I am telling you exactly what we want, but I know what we are in for if you open fire." Taking a deep breath, he said "I, Admiral Steven Hackett of the Systems Alliance, surrender to the RSS."

* * *

 **A/N: Well, what do you think? I mean what a way to end the chapter eh? Why would Hackett surrender? I mean he had to have known that this might happen, he would have had backup plans. So what made him reconsider? Not telling! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!**

 ***Baswoe System: The system where the RSS-Citadel Relay is.**

 ***Geth Station Platform: The Geth station platform is of my own creation.**

 **-IAnswerToNoOne**


	6. Chapter 6

**How to start this one… I am honestly amazed. I didn't expect such a reaction. Again, this is my first fanfic, so please no flames as this story will get better over time. I'm sorry for not uploading on time, I wasn't feeling well at all yesterday. I apologize for any inconveniences this may have caused you.**

 **Halo and Mass Effect do not belong to me. Bungie and BioWare own each one respectively. Although I wish I did own them…**

 **-IAnswerToNoOne**

* * *

03/18/02/200 Hours

Baswoe System

RSS Fleet

"Come again?" All of the Commanding Officers stared at the screen that showed Admiral Hackett's face. "Did you, a Human, just surrender?" Fleetmaster R'tas Vadum was amazed. He had thought that all humans were the same. They were stubborn and unwilling to just give up and die. They would fight to the last and nuke themselves trying to do the most damage possible. And if they couldn't do that, then try to get away, or just shoot until they die.

In this instant, these beliefs were shattered. In his tactical mind, he was wondering why such an experienced officer would just surrender. As he thought, he slowly realised that since the ships he was facing had unknown strengths, and unknown weaknesses, that the SA Admiral was overestimating the RSS forces. At least the UNSC had some idea of what the Covenant was capable of. He also remembered that nuclear weapons were banned by the Citadel. He grinned, of if only they knew how many nukes the UNSC had…

"Yes, I did. Our fleet is completely outmatched. Our shielding can't stand up against plasma, they only stop kinetic weaponry. All of your weapons are plasma, or some type of laser based, so our shielding is useless. Your ships have better armor, are faster, have more guns, defenders advantage, and you have what, a 150 stations? I for one surrender. If the rest of the fleets don't, then I will fight you. If the others do, well, we surrender."

Admiral Hackett was definitely right. The Citadel fleet stood no chance against the RSS fleet, not including the Quarian and Geth vessels.

"Do the rest of you surrender, or promise not to join within this battle?" Executor Light of Mercy was asking.

The Asari, Volus, Hanar, and a few others stood down. The only ones willing to fight were the Turians, Batarians, Salarians and about half of the Systems Alliance, leaving about 45,000 ships. Still, the Executor told the Quarians and Geth to stand down. He wanted to show the Citadel why provoking the RSS was a really bad idea. And show them they would. Under his helmet, Executor Light of Mercy grinned, the Citadel would not engage the RSS again.

* * *

Turian Fleet

RSS Space

03/18/02-2300 Cycles

*Primarch Destitia Papcius

As he watched, the Quarian and Geth detachments of the RSS fleet broke off and held position about 50,000 kilometers away. He smiled, _How naive are they, thinking that they can stand up against the might of the full Turian navy? We have stopped wars before they begin with a threat of our firepower! I don't care how big they are, they cannot beat us. We also have the Batarian fleet, as well as the Systems Alliance with us._ Sitting back confidently, he ordered the communications officer to open a link to the other ships. Then he gave the most dramatic order in his life. He took a deep breath and barked out "Fire!"

* * *

RSS Fleet

03/18/02-0240 Hours

Admiral Lawsky

"Tell all RSS ships to keep their reactors at 75% Keep our shields prepped and hot, but keep our weapons cold. Have our Frigates and lower take shelter behind the Dreadnoughts and _Invincible_ s. Have all of our fighters ready to launch. Make sure all of our marines are ready to deploy from our drop-pods and make sure we don't get hit by any E-War tactics. Prepare to hit them with ours though. Try to keep the damage to shields minimal. Make sure that all of our ships survive this day. Only fire ion cannons. No heroics. If you're injured, pull back. Let the Huragok repair your ship, then come back in. Do as much damage as possi-" The Admiral was cut off as the ship's AI, Morinth, said "Sir, they're powering up their weapons. And they've fired upon the _Bloody Dagger._ Hardlight shields have held _._ They're slowly getting rid of the shields. They're launching fighters. Only 800,000 fighters sir. Shall we deploy ours?"

"Yes" was the curt reply from the Admiral.

RSS fighters were very interesting. They were actually controlled by people living on RSS planets. They would wear headgear to see out from a camera on the fighter. They would have a controller in front of them that had everything a fighter needed. A joystick, a firing stud, a throttle and other components. They would be flying fighters in space while actually on some planet almost playing a game.

RSS carriers were also interesting. While they did do what their name suggests, they also have a factory within that creates more fighters, so pilots who lost their ships basically have a 'respawn'.

This was done because the RSS figured out that, surprise, a lot of pilots died. So they invented this system where the only thing that would 'die', is the fighter.

Alone, they were shaped like a short, stubby triangle with 2 engines and 4 guns. 2 fired forwards while the other 2 would fire behind them. Just to make sure that no one would try to follow them.

Hundreds of thousands of fighters blasted forth from the carriers. The Citadel line faltered for a moment and a few even sped away from the engagement but most still kept on coming. Holding position, they created a screen so that no Citadel bombers could get through.

As much as any fleet commander likes a battle, the first few minutes are always out of their control. As the fighter lines approached each other, the Commanders sat, and watched in anticipation.

On the sensors, the fighters approached, clashed, blurred, and crossed. Only the numbers on the RSS's side dropped, but the RSS only fired E-War jets.

The E-War jet was recently created. It was a small projectile that unleashes a stream of programming that allowed the RSS to have complete control over the fighter. The projectile must land directly into the opposing fighter. Once the fighter is hit, the RSS planned to make the fighters pull out and hold position near the Geth/Quarian fleet. This way, there would be minimal losses on either side. There would of course me the occasional collision, but those were unavoidable.

As the lines passed each other, about a third of the Citadel's fighters pulled up and out of the fight. As they flew over to the Geth, the RSS could hear them screaming to their commanding officers that they had no control over their fighters.

Lieutenant Major Rentour Koon

Commander of the Blazing Phoenix's

0300

"Everyone, prepare to engage. Open fire! Break off by wing pairs. Keep them off each other's backs. Keep firi-"

"Ah! God dammit! My ship just went down. Renewed control in estimated 3 minutes." Phoenix 2's pilot called out.

"Understood." Rentour frowned. This meant that he was effectively without a wingman. But that didn't matter. Flying without hesitation, he made a hard right turn and cut his engines, forcing him into an uncontrollable spin. Firing from the middle of the *mothball, he hit people with both of his double turrets. Finally stopping, he accelerated to the thickest cluster of enemy fighters while looking at his targeting computer, seeing a staggering 47 enemies hit. Had he been firing real hardlight shells, he would have destroyed those and damaged all of those that flew through their debris clouds. As he neared his target, he slowly grinned. Continuously firing the E-War jets, he sent more than a few fighters out of the fight. Suddenly, his fighter rocked. Doing a quick inside loop, he avoided the next burst from his opponent and after an extremely tight right turn, caught the other fighter with a single jet, which it's kinetic barriers stopped. He ground his teeth, this was going to be a challenge.

* * *

Fleetmaster R'tas Vadum

03/18/02-0300

Even as the fighters clashed all around the larger ships, Fleetmaster Vadum was shouting orders at the others. "Weapons up! Only fire the ion weapons! Remember, we are only trying to win, not to kill anyone. Prioritise the dreadnoughts. They can deal the most damage. Fire at will. Make sure that they're actually out of the fight. Once they realise that we don't kill, they might take advantage to get a quick surround. We need to keep up our flanks since they outnumber us so badly. Keep their fighters off of us. Make sure that we don't overextend. Keep squadron 53-D back, we need them to keep their bombers contained. Give me a shield report for all front line ships. I need 8 squadrons to swing down and protect our bottom, 400 scout ships are trying to flank us. Have squadrons 23-27, and 72-76 go. Send squads 56-66 into slipspace and appear on their flank. Open up the formation, they're concentrating fire on us. Send our Invincibles up front, keep our CAS's on the sides, send our cruiser classes and lower behind the defensive screen. Monarch, have you cracked their communication systems yet? Broadcast it to the fighters make sure that they can follow what they are doing and counteract that to the squad commander's choosing." and it went on and on. Even the most well planned out engagement needs adaptation.

As the Citadel started to completely focus their fire, RSS ships dotted the battle with burning husks. Apparently even hardlight shields weren't strong enough to stop the concentrated firepower of 2000 ships, even if the ships did less damage than a MAC round.

All RSS ships were almost languidly taking out Citadel vessels. Especially when the cruisers and lower just started stacking and every shot would hit multiple ships. Even after all of the Citadel's fighters were out of the fight, the surviving RSS fighters simply started shooting the capital ships. Enough of the E-War jets actually would bring a capital ship around and towards the Quarian/Geth fleet.

The RSS stared as the Citadel attacked an Invincible, the _Impenetrable._ Expecting nothing to happen as the opposing fleet of a mere 9 approached, firing everything. But as soon as the fleet neared, they all went in on a suicide ram. 3 frigates, 2 cruisers and 4 destroyers accelerated towards the Impenetrable and the RSS could only watch as one of their most powerful ships was destroyed by the massive explosion of Eezo. The entire ship simply crumpled in upon itself. Once it did, the ship just floated there, what used to be a massive 122 kilometer long warship, was now a boxy block that was barely 2 kilometers in diameter. Some fighter could actually feel the pull from the ship, the Forerunner alloys were so dense.

Even as the RSS listened, the Citadel Admiral sent all his ships on ramming runs. Several other RSS ships fell because of the massive amounts of Eezo hitting them. Soon, the RSS was falling back towards the stations that were poised to destroy anything that came out of the Relay. Then, the Quarian fleet came forth to help their now definite allies. The RSS had given them their homeworld back. That was more than enough. Even as the RSS was being pushed back, the upgraded Quarian ships went in to provide 'covering fire'.

Once the RSS retreated behind the ODP's the 3 kilometer long stations opened fire, unleashing a massive ring of ions that fried all electronics and circuitry. Even the most advanced ship of the Citadel, the Destiny Ascension, didn't survive.

* * *

The Citadel Council

03/18/02-0500

As they watched, massive rings of purple-blue headed towards the camera. As soon as the ring touched the camera screen, the feed was cut short.

Shaken, Tevos stared at the now non functioning screen. Grinning at the fact that she proved that the RSS wasn't infallible, she slowly reached under the table and pressed a button. The button in turn sent all ships created and owned by the Citadel to fly back to the Citadel, where the Fleet would wait, and mobilise, until the RSS can do nothing about it.

Sparatus was wary, he had just seen most of the Citadel's fleets disabled by the newcomers on the galactic governmental scale. And while this was a good indication on what the RSS had in stock for the Citadel in space, it still didn't show the Citadel what they had on the ground. He was proud of his soldiers to have figured out how to destroy their ships, and was glad that they did, although at the cost of their lives. He needed to see what they had on the ground in order to do anything about their planets.

Valern was absolutely terrified. He just saw that the RSS had the capabilities to destroy the entire Citadel fleet and sustain a mere 18% in losses. In this fight, it was clear, quality was much better than quantity.

Udina was beyond terrified. The first thing that happened in this fight was that an Alliance Admiral, the best one in fact, outright surrendered and countered by saying that they only fired non-destructives, and they only incapacitated their opponents when they could obviously deal more damage. The main guns on the ships never fired, even after the Citadel started to destroy their ships without mercy. It also poked as though the RSS didn't want to kill, even at the expense of their own lives. A principle that Udina respected and was grateful for but didn't understand. He knew that Admiral Hackett's decision was justified, he was outright furious. The first major engagement the Systems Alliance had been in and their Admiral basically looked at the odds, stammered out everything that he knew, and ran away with his tail between his legs. This was not true, but from a politician's perspective, that's what happened.

"Well, now that we know of their capabilities, what should we do. We lost most of our fleets and they lost next to nothing! Although yes, we did destroy some of their larger ships, they were able to _take over_ our ships and make them a non-contributing asset in this fight! Because of your actions, we have most likely lost all hope of getting any tech and even less of them becoming a member of the Citadel. And, the worst thing is, you may as well have declared all-out war on them. We attacked with everything! Every last combat ship in Citadel space. And we were destroyed. The only thing that is going in our favor is the fact that they didn't destroy any of our ships! They only took them out of the fight, then left them alone! Their last weapon, that ring thing, could have been fired first, and they would have sustained _no_ losses." As she ranted, Tevos' face went from the Asari blue, to a deep purple as blood started to flow into her head.

The other three Councilors took a few steps back, away from Tevos. She was always the most composed and could calm almost any situation, this was an unwelcome and terrifying sight. All of them knew that she was right, but none of them would admit it. Udina actually started to think that attacking the RSS was wrong. So far, they had only helped the Quarians, and rid the Citadel from the Geth threat. Maybe they weren't so bad.

She sighed and tried to calm herself. The Council would need to blockade their side of the Mass Relay and prepare for an assault on their space and needed to prepare ground forces. They needed to get more ships out and they needed them fast.

* * *

The RSS Senate

03/18/02-0500

"We must prepare for war. They attacked us to 'Demand our surrender, to force us to join the Citadel even though we made it clear that we wanted to have nothing to do with them, and they wanted all of our tech. Had we actually lost any men or women, I would have already declared war and we would be on our way!" Growling Senator Vahktumu declared. "I'm just glad that we finished changing our ships into AI controllable ones." After the total damage was tallied, 7 Invincibles, 22 CAS-Supercruisers, 48 Indomitables and 17 Adamants were destroyed. In total, that would have been 18,225,737 citizens dead. (I have forgotten the numbers to how I did that) As it was, there were only 334 'lives' lost, and all of them were AI's that volunteered to be one of those to oppose the incoming fleet.

Vahktumu was surprised, to say the least when most of the Senate agreed with him.

"What shall we do then? Send an Invincible to the home worlds of each species and send their complement of soldiers to hold their worlds hostage for the time being? Then just say that we will glass a part of their world, the least populated part, just to make a show of even more force? The first was obviously not enough. And what to do with the ships we are holding hostage? Send them back through the Relay with so many bugs that we could learn everything about them?" the Sangheili representative, Thaka 'Sukam, said. Even though he was a Senator, he was still of the more brash and aggressive kind.

When Senator Klis seconded his proposal, the rest of the Senators quickly followed. They would not glass any part of any planet, but they would send all neutralised ships through the Relay with the bugs, and send several Invincibles to each homeworld.

Senator Iblis was thinking about something else however. "Should we include the Krogan as a member of the RSS? Be it a client or full member is up to them, but should we add them? They seem like the Jiralhanae in many ways, but have the breeding patterns of an Unggoy. No offence Senators" Iblis added as the 2 Unggoy representatives looked at the floor.

"I find it unreasonable that the Citadel created a bioweapon to limit their birthing rate. They could have given them the worst planets to live on instead. Perhaps a cure and several planets would suffice." said Kig-Yar representative Yax Biq.

"Seconded. We are to save people of any species and try not to kill. And, in the light of the war ahead, the RSS might need a little propaganda to say that we do not want to fight. We only wish to live alone from the Citadel. But if anyone is killed, we would retaliate appropriately. Should we send that message with the released ships."

"Even better is the fact that they don't know where our planets and otherwise are. Unlike them, we don't leave our home worlds, colonies, current politicians, and other high ranking people out in the open for anyone to see." The Fwo Lekgolo rumbled.

"So, we are sending a fleet of ships to Tuchanka, with a promise of a cure within a month and, what, will… 30 planets suffice? The Unggoy have 25 planets but they also live with us on other planets as well. Should we give them a chance?" Vahktumu asked.

"Again, they remind me of the Jiralhanae. We will help them if we can help them." Iblis said with finality.

"Is there anything else anyone would like to say?" Looking around, Leonardo saw no one. "Then I declare this meeting adjourned."

* * *

03/21/02-1600 Hours

Tuchanka

Urdnot Wrex's eyes shot open as he heard a dull roar. It sounded like a mass accelerator round had flown into atmosphere, but what he saw as he looked out the window shocked him to the core. An absolutely enormous ship was hovering in atmosphere and a single dropship was sent to his position. As he watched, the dropship landed and 6 heavily armored beings walked out of the ship. They looked like Humans but that armor looked like it would take a Krogan to lift. He raised his shotgun as the beings approached, but they raised their empty hands to show that they were unarmed. He was terrified of them before they spoke, but he was near the point of passing out after they did.

"Urdnot Wrex, we are representatives of the RSS, or the Republic of Sentient Species. We would like to know if you would like to have your own planet, an embassy in the RSS, and a cure for the Genophage within a month."

 **A/N: OK, it looks like the RSS is gathering allies and helping people at the same time.**

 **Star Wars does not belong to me. I am just using names and only the one weapon, the Ion Cannon. Star Wars is owned by George Lu… god dammit Disney. Star Wars is owned by Disney. *Insert sigh here***

 ***Primarch Destitia Papcius: The Admiral of all space faring forces for the Citadel.**

 ***Mothball: A pilot's slang term for a concentration of fighters.**

 **I almost didn't finish this chapter on time. I finished it at school during lunch! That was way too close. At any rate, please Read and Review! NO FLAMES PLEASE! I'm just doing this for fun. You might also see a My Little Pony fanfic soon. DON'T WORRY. I am doing on a bet, and I will let my sadistic side show (they will all die!) MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

 **-IAnswerToNoOne**


	7. Chapter 7

Oh hallelujah! This is insane. I'm actually keeping up! I will be updating on Sundays now, Saturday is just insane with extracurriculars and whatnot.

THIS STORY WILL BE GOING ON HIATUS FOR 4 WEEKS. (Hiatus means that there will be no updates for a while for those that don't know) This is something new, so give me some feedback. (PMs please) I'll be swapping between 2 stories that I will be writing. This one will be a StarCraft/ME X-over. You should check out StarCraft, both the gameplay and the story, I find it fascinating. Anyway, yeah. So, I will be working on that for a month and then switch back and forth.

Alright, about last chapter, I realise that you will probably react by saying 'Gee, the RSS only fired non lethals? (Not really, nobody says 'gee' anymore, but you get the idea) That's stupid. In a war kill all of your opponents.' TO MAKE THIS CLEAR, I DO NOT SUPPORT ANY WARS OR VIOLENCE UNLESS IT IS WITH A FAMILY MEMBER WHERE THE FIGHT LASTS A FEW DAYS. Anyway, don't worry, 'cause this chapter, the RSS will wage war with the Citadel and will kill and destroy enemy soldiers and mechs.

Geust: ME ship shots travel much faster and therefore deal a little more damage than a Covenant war MAC round. The force is F=MA so the acceleration is much greater, but the mass is much less, so I'm putting it in at about the same level as a Covenant war MAC round.

OH shit, well. I just remembered to upload and it's a week late, so I will be doing a double upload. One for Of The Future and Past, and another that I am currently working on, The Eternal Cycle.

Yeah? You like? No, no. Ok…

Tuchanka

Urdnot Wrex

04/13/02-1400 Cycles

Even as he watched, the screen showed several images of DNA. He saw a comparison and listened to RSS scientist Dr. Halsey as she attempted to explain what they were doing. Seeing a few Narthoc and Humans working diligently, he say down very heavily. He was ecstatic, yet also terrified. What would the Krogan do if the Genophage was cured? What would become of the mercenaries? The Krogan were still in factions. If they didn't follow him and they ended up destroying each other because they believed that the cure that the RSS was making was a lie and they were actually trying to kill them all, what would become of the Krogan? The Krogan had a reputation of being violent, after all. Who would want to help them? Even if the RSS could control them, who was to say that they wouldn't just kill them or give them a new Genophage once they realised that the Krogan weren't useful? Every way he looked at it, it looked like a proposal just to make him feel good.

Finally, he couldn't take it anymore and grabbed the nearest scientist, Narthoc.

"Why are you doing this? Are you just doing this to make me join your cause? To become more cheap labour?" he demanded rather angrily.

Blinking in honest confusion, Professor Uqoo Meemoid, slowly answered. "We of the RSS believe that all sentient and non-sentient life is valuable. We cannot simply look at an easily solvable problem and do nothing about it. Had the Genophage been unleashed upon another species within the RSS, believe me, our forces would have destroyed all medical abilities of that species and we would have kept them under quarantine and lookout for at least a decade. This is not just a bioweapon, it is a bioweapon that has the potential to destroy entire species, without a need for a war. If our calculations are correct, then the Krogan would have been born in approximately 5 centuries. We cannot, in good conscience look at this and simply turn away, especially if it is within our legal rights to do so. Neither of us are a Citadel species so we do not have to obey their laws. What we are doing is completely legal by both our and the Citadel's laws."

Wrex was speechless. People were willing to help others with nothing in return.

"Well, anyway, we are very good with our medical sciences so the cure will probably take a few weeks to discover and then synthesise. The main problem is the fact that we have no pre Genophage subjects or samples to compare it to. If we did, that would make it a lot easier."

Wrex stopped. "I might know of a place with pure Krogan samples, but it is incredibly well protected and you will probably get the RSS into another war if you went to get it. If you do get it, then you must either not have anyone survive, or not let the Salarians see you. Considering that Omega is one of the most protected places in the entire gala… in Citadel space. I received a message from an old friend that… lives there. He said that there were several fertile females there. Those females may very well be the last Krogan without the Genophage. They could be your best bet when it comes to samples."

Uqoo Meemoid laughed. "We can do both." he said as he reached for his radio.

High Charity

The Pride Of All

04/16/02-1900 Hours

As the Chief, Arbiter and Special Agent entered the room, they noticed a tense air. There was an image of an asteroid that was apparently habitable as there were buildings. Even as Admiral Lawsky entered to shake their hands they could tell that he was tense. "Good to see you again, Chief. We need you to do another mission. There are some problems with curing the Krogan. They have several immunities that make it hard for them to accept drugs. We also need a sample of pre Genophage Krogan, because we can't tell what's wrong. If you get these samples, then we could get a cure within 48 hours. We don't want to send someone with weaker armor, in case we actually lose some men. The planet that the samples are on is a space station called Omega that is controlled by pirates, slavers and other scum. Sorry, I really don't like people like that. Anyway, the samples were placed there by the Council about 3000 years ago, but they were kept in stasis, so they should be fine. We would normally send the Voidjumpers, but we don't know how Eezo will affect their slipspace portals. What do you think. Who and what should we bring?"

As the 3 military specialists looked at the map, they all had the same thought, but the Chief was the one to voice it.

"What does this place have in terms of AA? From the looks of it right now, I would think that a few *Badgers would do well. Maybe a single Geth Colossus? Artillery would help. Can't bring anything too big, place's streets are too small. I think that we'll need to run a lot of sims, on what would happen if a person jumped into an Eezo heavy zone. And a single *Porcupine. That firepower would prove instrumental in holding and taking objectives. That firepower might also dissuade some of them from attacking us. Personally, I suggest Blue and Ghost. Too many people would attract attention, even if half of us are cloaked."

Lawsky didn't show it, but internally, he grinned. Now, Light of Mercy owed him 20 dollars. He knew that the Chief would not let the Prometheans fight. The Humans and Sangheili were the most prevalent in the RSS military, so it would be good to hold an ace up their sleeve.

"Alright, we can get those for you, but a Porcupine? Isn't that a little overkill?" Lawsky asked.

"In my years of experience Admiral, there is no such thing as too much firepower." While what the Chief said was true, the real reason why he wanted the Porcupine was to see the ability of RSS firepower compared to the Citadel's. He knew that their 'kinetic barriers' could stop each and every bullet the UNSC marines could fire, if they all had SPECTRE level shields, but the RSS needed to see the extent of Eezo.

"How and when are we getting there?"

The Citadel

Council Room

04/17/02-1500 Cycles

"What are we getting from the STG Valern? What can they tell us?" Sparatus was furious. The RSS had destroyed each and every spy drone sent through the Relay before their stealth systems could engage.

"Well, apparently, they have numerous worlds, about 600,000 to 800,000 worlds, if the garden world population is anything like ours. They control about 90% of the galaxy and we can't do anything about it because of the Eezo restrictions." Valern couldn't believe it. The newcomers had destroyed what had been the most powerful government in the galaxy in less than 2 days and had them back off. He had sent tens of thousands of drones into RSS space, although only about 20% made it in, it gave the RSS and Citadel a good idea of what the RSS had. "It looks like the RSS isn't one whole alliance, but an alliance of alliances. There are 4 distinct factions in the RSS. The UNSC, or the United Nations Space Command, for the Humans, the Covenant, a collective with the Sangheili, Jiralhanae, Huragok, Yarotk, Kig-Yar, Unggoy, Lekgolo, Yan'me and the Narthoc, the Prometheans, and the Quarian/Geth. I assume the Krogan would join the Quarian/Geth because they are known, they might not know what the RSS might do. The Quarians and Geth are no matter. We know of their abilities and their weaknesses. Now, I just hope that the Krogan would turn the RSS and force them to expel the Krogan, we all know they like a fight and will pick one with anyone."

Sparring Arena

The Pride of All

04/17/02- 1200 Hours

The 2 beings grunted as they struggled in vain to gain the upper hand. Chieftain Tartarus growled as he lifted his opponent over his head and slammed him on the ground. Wrex grunted, the fight had been going on for 2 hours, but neither one was willing to back down. The audience was going insane. The Chieftain was the best fighter for the Jiralhanae and the Krogan was apparently the best of his kind as of their armor, the Chieftain went berserk for the 7th or 8th time this fight. Just as he did, Wrex got up and performed a short charge until, once again they were stuck. Pushing with all their considerable strength, they realised neither one could gain the upper hand. Soon, Wrex's deep slow 'heh, heh, hehs' were joined by Tartarus' rumbling laughter. They both let go and shook hands, if a little too hard.

"We should definitely spar again. No one has ever pushed me so far. Most fights between Jiralhanae last about a minute, the time it takes me to go berserk." Tartarus wasn't joking. He had defeated some of the Demons before, and only about 10 hax pushed him this far.

Wrex smiled. "Never had anyone pushed me that far without biotics. I would normally have used a weapon, but your ability to hold your own against me has earned my respect."

"And your's, mine and my people's, Urdnot." The 2 would soon become fast friends and would fight together on many occasions to come.

Cortana grinned. Once she sent the recording of that fight to the Citadel, she would show them that even the most violent sentients could be controlled and have friends if given the chance.

Relay 314 Defense Fleet

04/19/02-1200 Cycles

Admiral Varil Degestrian

Even though the RSS had declared war on the Citadel, they had once again sent him to the front lines. He smiled, but it was malicious. He had started a war and they wanted him to surrender to them. Considering the barbarism the RSS has, he was surprised at what they could do! They didn't even have Eezo! By the Spirits! What could those monstrosities do without Eezo! It was the basis of all life. It powered Omni-tools, space drives, everything! What could they do without it? Now, he was in command of one of the most powerful ships in the combined fleets, the Normandy. The Normandy was upgraded from the war, it now had full stealth technology, had so much Eezo that it was faster than the Destiny Ascension, the fastest official ship in the Citadel and some of the best people in the military, including Commander Shepard, an Alliance operative that was awarded SPECTRE status for destroying a Geth 'infested' planet. In the process, he had survived killing approximately 400 Geth platforms personally. They also had the most advanced VI ever created, called EDI. The best in the Citadel had been placed on this ship. Now, they had to see what the RSS could do.

UNSC Prowler Unseen Eye

On Route to Omega

04/19/02-1300 Hours

Master Chief's Quarters

Even though he heard the Arbiter approaching, he didn't move from his position in the couch. Still in his armor, the century old Spartan stared at his one time enemy, and now longtime friend. Finally the Chief broke the silence.

"Why is it that we are always called to the front lines? We may still be the best in the galaxy, but we are still Hu… organic. We can't do everything." He sighed. "Sometimes I wish I could leave the military, but it's the only place that I feel at home."

The Arbiter sat down next to the Chief. "I agree, Demon. We have fought in too many wars. We must let the torch go, and let others take it up.

OK, well, I was wrong. I wanted to make this chapter the one with a lot of bloodshed, but I guess you'll have to wait a month. READ THE TOP PLEASE. Actually, that's it. Have a nice Halloween people!

-IAnswerToNoOne


	8. Chapter 8

Hey guys/ladies, I'm really sorry, but this story will be going on hiatus. High school is a whole new beast. 3 assignments at a time! What the hell is this?! Anyway, I also have way more stuff than what I can keep up with so all my stuff will be going on hiatus. Sorry 'bout this.

I also don't really have the same push to write this story as I do with The Eternal Cycle. Maybe it's just the fact that I like Starcraft more than Halo, but this will be going on a near permanent hiatus.

I am sorry but I just can't keep up and I really don't care for this one. I have more important things to do with my time.

-IAnswerToNoOne


	9. Announcement

Sorry that this isn't a real chapter, but this is an announcement for my upcoming story, For Judgement Shall Be Passed. It is a joint work between OmegaEntertainment and I, and we hope that you enjoy it. Please check it out if you are interested.


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